sus' healing of the insane and epileptic was through the
expulsion of demons that possessed them. In each instance it was
understood as a sign of control over beings belonging to another world.
But such an attestation of Jesus' divine mission, having been superseded
for us by proofs of higher character, is now no more needful for us in
the case of the "dead" than in the case of the "demons."

4. The power of breaking the deathly trance, of quickening the dormant
life, reenergizing the collapsed nervous organism, and ending its
paralysis of sensation and motion, may be reasonably regarded as power
of the same psychical kind that Jesus regularly exerted in healing the
sufferers from nervous disorders who were reputed victims of demoniac
possession.[23] In this view these resuscitations from apparent death
appear in natural coherence with the many other works of mercy that
Jesus wrought as the Great Physician of his people, and may be regarded
as the crown and consummation of all his restorative ministries. Jesus'
thanksgiving after the tomb had been opened--"Father, I thank thee that
thou hast heard me"--shows that he had girded himself for a supreme
effort by concentrating the utmost energy of his spirit in prayer.
Physically parallel with this was the intensity of voice put into his
call to the occupant of the tomb. This is better represented in the
original than in our translation: "He shouted with a great voice,
'Lazarus, come forth.'" The whole record indicates the utmost tension of
all his energies, and closely comports with the view that this stood to
the sequel in the relation of cause to effect.[24] Another circumstance
not without bearing on the case is the energizing power of the intense
sympathy with the bereaved family that stirred the soul of Jesus to weep
and groan with them. And it is not without significance that this strong
factor appears active in the larger number of the Biblical cases,--three
of them only children, two of these the children of the pitiable class
of widows.

Peculiar, then, as was the case of Lazarus, our examination of it
reveals no substantial ground for insisting that it was essentially
unlike the previous case of the ruler's daughter, that it was the
bringing back into a decaying body of a spirit that had entered into the
world of departed souls. The actual fact, of course, is indemonstrable.
Our conclusion has to be formed wholly upon the probabilities of the
case, and must be fo